March 2011 ~ ZowIT web development

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Web Design tutorial part 1

Posted by C. Levi on 4:47 AM

1-1 Introduction
So you have decided to design your web pages yourself! Good decision. So let's start quickly.
Web pages are ordinary files with .htm or .html file extensions. They contain a code named "hyper text mark-up language" or html. This codes when viewed in a browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape will be seen as beautiful web pages however code under web page may be complicated.
To design an html web page you have two options:

a. You can use a web page editor like Microsoft FrontPage to create web pages. It works exactly like Microsoft word (a complicated editor program used for creating and editing book, letter etc pages.) You just type text, insert graphics and finally save your document as an html web page. By the way word 2000 itself can save your existing documents as html pages. So you see designing a web page can be very easy. But soon you will see that this is not a good option for creating a professional web page.

b. Second option is to learn html codes and write html pages in a simple text editor. As we said
your codes will be seen as WebPages when viewed in a web browser.

1-2 Reasons for choosing second option

- If you want to design professional web pages using these tools will not be enough. You must be familiar with html codes.
- Results of these editors are big and sometimes chaotic code. Maintaining this code is very difficult.
- If you want to design dynamic web pages in future you will need to know html codes.
- If you will need forms in your pages to send information to server and return result pages back to browser you will need to know html codes.
- There are other reasons that dictate us to learn html coding and not satisfy with these tools.

1-3 Tools you will need

You will need a simple text editor to write html codes. For example you can use notepad in windows or any text editor in other operating systems. You will also need a browser like Internet explorer, Firefox or other Navigator.

1-4 Start Here
Now open notepad and type the following code.

Hello World!

<HTML>
Hello world!
</HTML>

Now save the text as "page11.html" To browse html file open windows explorer and double click on the file. You must see your first web page opened in your web browser. Note: If you have any question about lessons.

<HTML> and </HTML> are called tags. First one is a start tag and second is an end tag. Tags are something like commands in programming languages. <HTML> tag tells the browser that this is start of the HTML and </HTML> marks its end.
<HTML> </HTML> mark start and end o a html page.

1-5 HTML code headers
Every html page must have a header. Header contains important information about the page.
Different tags are used for different sections of a header. Header of an html page is specified by <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
...
</HEAD>
</HTML>

We will enter header information between <HEAD> </HEAD> tags.

1-6 Title
One of the most important parts of a header is title. Title is the small text that will appear in title bar of viewer's browser. So html document will be as below.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Title of the page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
</HTML>

1-7 Web page body
Now our web page needs a body in which we will enter web page content. As you may guess we will use these tags:
<BODY> </BODY>
Body will come right after header end tag. So our web page will be something like this Example :

Welcome to our homepage. More text here.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>My company web page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Welcome to our homepage. More text here.
</BODY>
</HTML>

Now type html code in notepad and save it as "page2.html". Then view html file in your browser by double clicking on it in windows explorer.

1-8 Extended <BODY> tag

Most of html tags we will learn have optional parameters and extensions. Here we will learn to extensions for <BODY> tag.

1-9 Background color for body of web page
If you want you can change background color of your web page by extending <BODY> tag as below.
Example:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Page with Back Color</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#00FF00">
Page with Back Color
</BODY>
</HTML>
This will change your background color to green. Format of color number is RRGGBB. You know that each color is a combination of three main colors: Red, Green and Blue. In color format RR is value of red component of the main color in hexadecimal format. GG is value of green component and BB is the value of blue component. Two digit hexadecimal number can be anything between 00 to FF i.e. 0 to 255 in decimal format.
So if we write 00FF00 we mean (red=0, green=255, blue=0) so the result is a pure green color.
You can produce 16 million colors in this way but pay attention that not all of the browsers will be capable to show all these colors. So test your web page in 256 colors mode.

1-10 Background Image
We can use a background picture for web page instead of background color. You must have a ready image file in .gif or .jpg formats. Now you must extend <BODY> tag as below. "image1.gif" is file name of he image we want to use as background image.
<BODY BACKGROUND="image1.gif">

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Page with background image</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BACKGROUND="image1.gif">
<B>Page with background image.</B>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Image file must be in the same folder as your html file. Otherwise browser will not be able to find it.

Creating a MySQL Database with Site5

Posted by C. Levi on 5:10 AM

Creating your MySQL database if you’re using the site5 hosting system is simple. Log into Backstage (the site5 control panel), click on the Site Admin tab, then click on your site domain name. You’ll see the main SiteAdmin screen, which looks like this:

In the left hand navigation area, click on MySQL Databases and you’ll see three options:
manage databases, manage users, or php MyAdmin. Choose the first of those, and the following screen will appear:

To create the new database, just type a name into the box and click the button. As with most other hosting companies, site5 will add a prefix to your database. As can be seen in the above illustration, creating a database called hms will actually result in one called foodarco_hms.
Take note of the link to phpMyAdmin. We’ll be using this shortly to add some tables and data to our new database.

Creating A Database using Hostmonster

Posted by C. Levi on 4:57 AM

Now that you understand the basics of relational database design, we can log onto the web server and actually create a database. Throughout the rest of this book, in the chapters that discuss MySQL and PHP, we’ll continue building and enhancing HMS, our Hotel Management System, as our example database application. If you have a different project in mind, feel free to adapt the examples as you go. However, you will probably find it easier to start by following the examples as they appear. Once you’re happy that the HMS system is
working properly on your server, you can then adapt it into whatever you want.
To create a MySQL database, you’ll need to find out how this is done on the particular hosting platform that you’re using. Here’s how to do it with site5 and hostmonster.

Creating a Database with Hostmonster

In the case of Hostmonster, creating a database is done through the Databases section of the control panel. So we start by logging into the control panel at hostmonster.com, with our username of thewebbo and the relevant password. This brings up the control panel, the relevant part of which is:

To create a database, click on the MySQL Databases link. You’ll see the following screen:

As you can see, I currently have two databases created (thewebbo_cms and thewebbo_rs44). Hostmonster adds a prefix to its databases, based on the username of the hosting account they belong to, hence thewebbo_ at the start of each database name.
We need to create a new database for our hotel management system. We’ll call it hms for simplicity. So, in the Create New Database section, type hms and click Create Database.
You’ll see a confirmation message:

And that’s all there is to it. But note that the database name is thewebbo_hms rather than plain hms, for reasons stated earlier. You’ll need to know the name of your database later, when we start to write PHP programs that access it.
With the database created, we have no further need for this part of the control panel. So click the Home link at the bottom of the screen to return to the main control panel screen and the full menu of database-related things.
The third option says "phpMyAdmin". This is a web-based program for managing MySQL databases on a remote server. It’s a free, open source application that just about every web hosting company offers for use by customers (ie you, rather than the people who visit your web site). It lets you create tables within databases, and it lets you create and manage the columns and rows within those tables. The only thing that it can’t do (at least, not in a way that satisfies the security requirements of most hosting companies) is to create the databases themselves, hence the previous step.

From now on we’ll use phpMyAdmin to manage our new thewebbo_hms database and to create the tables in it. Later on, we’ll write some PHP code which will use those tables to create a simple web-based hotel management application.
You’ll be using phpMyAdmin extensively while you develop web sites, so it’s a good idea to grab its URL from the control panel and save it as a shortcut or favourite. You’ll still need to enter your control panel username and password each time you access it, but at least you’ll be able to go straight to the program without first logging in to the control panel. To do this, just surf to phpMyAdmin as normal and then add the address to your web browser’s favourites. Or copy the URL, and paste it into whatever web bookmark manager you prefer to use. Or you could even save it as a shortcut on your desktop, for easy instant access.

Web-hosted Databases with MySQL

Posted by C. Levi on 4:10 PM

However, one of the most useful features of PHP is its ability to talk to server-based databases, so we first need to understand such things. There are various server-based database products which store their information on a server
rather than on the user’s local PC. That server doesn’t necessarily have to be a web server – the main point is that the database is held centrally and then accessed by multiple users, from multiple locations.
In the world of databases, the most popular language for interrogating a database is something called Structured Query Language, or SQL. Many database products use SQL, or something like it. Most SQL or SQL-like database server products cost serious money, such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server. One, though, is totally free of charge, and unsurprisingly this is the one that most web hosting companies install for your use. The product is called MySQL (pronounced my ess queue ell, or sometimes my sequel). Don’t be put off by the price tag – MySQL is corporate-strength software, just as happy storing tens of millions of items as a mere handful.
In this article I’ll show you how to manually connect to your web server via a browser and create a database. In the next chapter, you’ll see how to access your database using PHP, which will finally allow you to create web-based applications and database-driven web sites.
You won’t be able to try any of the examples that follow unless your web host offers MySQL.
Almost all of them do, though some make a small additional charge to enable it. In the case of the hosting companies that we’re featuring throughout this book, namely site5.com and hostmonster.com, MySQL is included.
Remember that MySQL is a server-based product, installed on your web server rather than your local PC. Equally, all of the data in its databases is stored on the server too. To access the system in order to create and browse databases, you use a web browser. In the case of many hosting companies, and both site5 and hostmonster are no different, accessing MySQL requires you to access two different web sites. One location is for creating the initial databases.
The other location is for managing those databases, which means: creating tables and fields; adding and deleting data; searching the database tables. The reason for this demarcation is because of security considerations.

Databases, Tables, Fields, Rows and Columns

At this point, you’re probably getting confused by the mention of databases, tables, fields and so on. So before we continue, let’s clear up the differences. It’s vital that you understand some basic terminology in order to avoid confusion later on.
What you probably think of as a database is actually referred to as a table. A table is a collection of rows and columns. Think of it just like a spreadsheet. You might have a table called "contacts". The columns are headed "name", "address" and "phone_number". A row might consist of 3 fields (just like spreadsheet cells) containing the values "John Smith", "65 High Street, London", and "01234 567890".
A database is a collection of tables. Typically, those tables are all related but there’s no rule that says they have to be. For example, imagine that you’re creating a database application for a system that manages the running of a hotel. The database itself might be called "hms" (for hotel management system). Within the database might be 3 separate tables. One, called "customers", contains the contact details of all past, present and future guests. Another table, called "staff", might contain the contact and salary details for staff. A final table, called "rooms", might contain details of the bedrooms, with column headings such as room_number, occupied_by, bed_type, phone_number, needs_cleaning,
date_last_occupied and so on.
Many hosting companies limit the number of databases that you can create. Typically, to between 1 and 5. However, this is not a problem as you are rarely limited in the number of tables that you can create within each database. Even if you only have one database, you can still create hundreds of tables in it. Obviously, being able to group your tables into related functions by using separate databases is handy, but it’s not essential. If you only have the one database, and you want to create the hotel management system, the standard way of doing such things is to add a prefix to each of the related tables in order to indicate that they are linked. So we might choose an hms_ prefix for our hotel management system, and therefore name the tables hms_rooms, hms_guests, hms_staff and so on. Other tables that
are for use with other systems would have their own prefix.

Normalization

While we’re discussing MySQL terminology, there’s one more thing that you need to know before we can start creating databases and tables for real. It’s nothing to do with MySQL or web sites specifically, but is more to do with basic computer science and the creation of a computer database.
The golden rule of database design is: "don’t store anything more than once. Instead, store it just once, give it a unique reference number, and refer to it by that number in future". Why?
Because it’s a much safer way to ensure that the database content remains accurate. If you need to change something, you only need to change it once, and all references to it are automatically up to date. Let me give you an example.
Consider our hotel management system. There’s a table called "rooms", with columns called:

room_number
occupied_by
bed_type
phone_number
needs_cleaning
date_last_occupied
There’s also a "customers" table, with columns called:
name
address
phone_number

Within the customers table is John Smith, and he’s currently resident in room 225. How do we represent this in the database? The obvious answer is to add him to the customers table (because he’s a customer), and then create a new row in the "rooms" table, too, as follows:

However, this breaks our golden rule of only storing something once. John Smith appears in both the "customers" table and the "rooms" table. It’s a waste of space storing this information twice. Also, if John Smith calls the hotel and says that we’ve spelled his name wrong on his bill (it should be Jon), we’d have to search every table looking for instances to
change.
There’s one further problem, too, which is even more serious. What happens if a new guest, also called Jon Smith, checks into the hotel? There are now 2 Jon Smiths in the customers table, but there’s no clue in the "rooms" table as to which of them is currently in room 225. Which will play havoc with the billing system.
So here’s how we do it, according to the golden rule of giving everything a reference number and then referring to things by their number. We create the customers table like this:
id
name
address
phone_number
The difference is that we’ve added a reference number column. We’ve called it "id" rather than "reference number", simply because that’s the convention that most MySQL database designers use, but it’s not essential.
So now, Jon Smith’s entry in the customers table might look like this:

And the reference to him in the "rooms" table looks like this:

No longer is room 225 occupied by Jon Smith. It’s now occupied by guest number 64. And by checking the customers table and searching for the person whose id is 64, we know exactly which Jon Smith is in the room. Furthermore, if Jon changes his name back to John, all we need to change is the single reference in the customers table. All other references to him in the rooms table, the billing table, the restaurant bookings table, and so on, will only refer to him as customer 64 and not by name.
So now you know why large companies always want to know your customer reference number when you telephone them with an enquiry!
Designing databases in this way, ie with information referenced by a unique number, is known as normalization. It’s often harder than it looks, but is well worth the effort invested. It ensures that your database, ie your collection of related tables, is working at peak efficiency.
As it happens, we've already missed a trick in the design of our hotel system. You'll see that there's a ate_last_occupied field in the rooms table. But why do we need this? Presumably, hotel bookings will be held in a "bookings" table which has columns called id, customer, arrival date, departure date and room number. So in order to find out which guest last occupied a room, we don’t actually have to store any data at all. We just search the bookings table instead. It's this sort of planning that takes just seconds to think about when you're designing a system, but days or weeks to implement if you discover, towards the end of the project, that you've been working with an inherent design flaw. So, always give lengthy consideration to your database design before you start writing any programs.
MySQL is known as a relational database. Hopefully you can now see why. Within the database is a collection of tables, and the information in those tables is often related. In the case of our rooms table, for example, there’s a relationship with the guests table.

Referential Integrity

A normalised database, where each type of data item is held in a separate table with a unique id, makes a great deal of sense. It's by far the most efficient way to store and manage information, whether you're designing a booking system for a 10-room hotel or an inventory manager for a web site the size of Amazon. However, it's important to ensure that you don't end up with tables that refer to non-existing information. In database terminology, this means making sure that you maintain the referential integrity.
Consider the example above, where room 225 is currently occupied by guest number 64. Five years from now, you notice that Jon Smith has stopped visiting your hotel so you decide to remove him from the customer database. Or perhaps he calls the hotel and asks to be taken off the mailing list, and you do this by simply removing his entry from the customers table.
As far as the customers table is concerned, there's no problem. Where once was record number 64, now there's nothing. But customer 64 is still referred to in the bookings table, and probably some other tables too. Which is going to cause problems. For example, when you run the "show me everyone who's stayed in room 225 over the past 7 years" report, and the system tries to find out the name and address of the person whose customer id is 64, there will be nothing on file. The integrity of the relational database has failed.
It's important that you handle such instances, and that you handle them correctly. In the case of the deleted customer, you can do one of three things:
1. Delete the customer from the table. In addition, also delete every affected row in every other table. Which in this case would mean deleting all of customer 64's roombookings, restaurant reservations, customer comments, and whatever other tables have a customer_id reference. The problem here is that you lose valuable data.
2. Replace the contents of customer's record with text such as "deleted". Leave the id number in place, but change the firstname, surname, phone number, address etc. Now, all your reports will still work correctly but, as per Mr Smith's wishes, his information has been deleted from your system.
3. Add a field to the customers table called, say, is_live, which specifies whether this is a live customer record or not. Keep it set to Y for all current customer records. To delete a customer, you don't remove anything from the customers table. Instead, you just set the customer's is_live flag from Y to N. Now, in the code that produces your reports, you check whether a customer is live or not and, if not, you display a message that says "non-live customer" rather than the real data. The old data is still there, but you simply choose not to display it. Bear in mind, though, that this can sometimes fall foul of data protection legislation in some countries, which states that you should delete personal customer information if you no longer need it or if the customer asks you to. Merely marking it as non-live doesn't count as having deleted it.

Accessing MySQL Databases with PHP

Posted by C. Levi on 1:49 PM

Once you know how to do these three things (and if you have you would be advised to recap before going further), we can now put it all together create an online database application.
To continue, you will need to ensure that the hms database we discussed on page 205 exists the web server, and that there’s a table within it called customers. The customers table 7 fields:
id
firstname
surname
title
address
phone
email
All of these should be text fields (tinytext should suffice) except id, which should be an Further, id should be set as an auto-increment field. If you’ve forgotten how to do refer back to page 210 for coverage of phpMyAdmin. the database and table created, your phpMyAdmin screen should look like this when you view the structure of the Customers table:

You’ll also need some data in the table. Hopefully, your data will still be there from when we covered phpMyAdmin. If not, browse to the Customers table, click on Insert, and create a couple of records. Now, when you click on Browse, you should see the data in the table like this:

Counting Rows

Now we’re ready to start writing some real code. Close your Web browser, open PSPad, and
create a file in your public_html folder called custlist.php which contains the following:
<?php
$db_host = "localhost";
$db_database = "thewebbo_hms";
$db_username = "thewebbo";
$db_password = "abc123xyz";
$dbcnx = mysql_connect($db_host,$db_username,$db_password);
mysql_select_db($db_database);

$query = "select id from customers";
$q = mysql_query($query);
$total = mysql_num_rows($q);

echo "Total number of customers in the database is " . $total;
?>

Open your web browser and surf to www.yoursite.com/custlist.php and you should see the following:

www.oozow.com

Posted by C. Levi on 6:10 PM

Hi all !

The Oozow IT Community is released, we are working with more details but for now you can make a profile, invite your friends and starting sharing your IT knowledge or posting questions to any participant.

I haven't posted all posts from this blog to oozow, but it's on the way, also new posts!

Adobe Illustrator writing tools

Posted by C. Levi on 11:57 AM

Illustrator II

You can write text in several ways in Illustrator, including the newest version CS5:

You can choose the Text Tool, click on stage and write:

Or choose the Text Tool, draw a box on stage and write inside it:

When the Text Tool is chosen you can put in the cursor somewhere in the text and write.

When the Selection Tool is chosen you can transform the text by rotating or scaling it.

You can also change the text using the transform Tools: Scale Tool, Rotate Tool, Reflect Tool

Shear Tool, Free transform Tool.

The Text Tool has 6 different settings:

Type Tool:

Vertical Type tool:

Area Type Tool:

Vertical Area Type Tool:

Type on a Path Tool:

Vertical Type on a Path Tool:

You can change Fontfamily and Fontstyle with the Character panel:

Windows > Type > Character

You can change the paragraph formatting using the Paragraph Panel:

Windows > Type > Paragraph

You can import an external text into Illustrator using: File > Place

The text will appear as Area Type text.

You can format the text into columns choosing:

Type > Area Type Options

The Rows & Columns panel can change the number of rows and columns and the size of the textbox.

You can wrap a text around an object by selecting both object and text object and text (the object has to be on top of the text) and then choose:

Object > Text Wrap > Make Text Wrap

You can also use a text mesh: It puts a text superimposed on a picture, then select both to text and pictures and then you choose:

Object > Clipping Mask > Make

Compound Paths

You can cut a hole in an object with another object:

By selecting both objects and then choose:

Object > Compound Path > Make

To separate the two objects again: Object > Compound Path > Release.

Implementation - Analysis

Posted by C. Levi on 5:48 AM

Developing a brand strategy and failing to effectively implement it is a waste of time and money. We know of many companies that have established internal task forces and committees, hired consultants and strategy "experts", or left it up to their agencies, only to experience PowerPoint overload and result in a strategy that may have sounded good, but was not implemented as well as it could have been.

We believe that the objectivity of outside resources can be valuable, but it is essential to understand, even broadly, how a brand strategy will be put into action, before the strategy is developed. This insures that all of the factors affecting the strategy are considered and that the strategy can be implemented to achieve maximum effect. Ashton Brand Group has found that this kind of "holistic" approach to brand strategy development, where we help our clients evaluate all the internal and external factors and determine how the strategy will be used, achieves better results--and we believe the results are always more important than the process itself.

This is the third of a three-part series about brand strategy--why it's important, how it's created and how to successfully implement and manage a brand over time. Part I covered the importance of understanding the "current state" of a brand (i.e. brand assessment). It also focused on utilizing a rigorous process, based on sound market research and analysis, that yields a clear picture of the market, the competition and their positionings, and the customers' needs and desires. Part II outlined the development of a compelling future brand vision -- one that is strong, powerful and credible. This includes its positioning, key brand driver, brand promise, etc. In short, getting the strategy and positioning right, from your customer's perspective, is certainly the key and everything else should flow from that. Which leads us to Part III - the implementation.

SO, WHAT IS EFFECTIVE BRAND STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION?

As most readers of this report know, brand strategy implementation is defined as translating the brand strategy into action--giving it value beyond simple words on a page. Examples of effective implementation based on the right brand strategy include:

Verbal Identity/Nomenclature-- It is essential that product names support the positioning, build on any existing equity and describe unique product benefits (realizing there may be government imposed limitations in industries such as pharmaceuticals). Likewise, product names should be credible, clear and easily pronounced.

Visual Identity -- The logo should also reflect the brand strategy, be memorable and unique and communicate the brand strategy effectively as a unit with the verbal identity.

Messaging Strategy-- A key outgrowth of a brand strategy is a messaging strategy that provides the framework for all communication about the brand. The messaging strategy should mirror the brand's positioning, voice, personality and product benefits. It should be simple, concise, single-minded and serve as the basis for all external and internal communications. It should guard against statements that are not clear. This framework should be the starting point for all advertising, public and investor relations, direct marketing, sales promotion, website, events, packaging, speeches, taglines, employee communications, etc.

Look and Feel-- A template for all printed materials should be developed to insure that the graphics and the image conveyed are consistent with the brand strategy.

Packaging-- Product packaging should be distinctive and memorable and it should reinforce the brand's positioning, voice, personality, and messaging strategy.

Brand Training-- A company's employees are one of the "faces" of the brand to the outside world. To effectively implement a brand strategy, the employees must understand what the brand is and communicate it effectively to everyone they meet. In short, they are the living reflection of the brand promise (See Brand Report Volume XIV, Part II of this series) and should "live, eat and breathe" the brand. This does not happen by osmosis. Proper Brand Training should include:

A structured training session where the essentials of the brand are communicated
Guidelines to help each employee understand their specific role and responsibility regarding the brand
A way to create excitement about the brand that permeates the company after the training session
Questions that are fielded and answered so that everything is clear and there is no confusion or misunderstanding.

Globalization-- Business is global today and the brand strategy reflect this by being presented and communicated everywhere that it is visible, communicated or marketed. Effective implementation requires that all branding be adaptable for all relevant global markets and supported to the extent budgets will allow.

AND, HOW DO YOU EFFECTIVELY MANAGE THE BRAND OVER TIME?

Ashton Brand Group's experience has shown that the strongest, most enduring brands have displayed certain characteristics relative to how they are managed over time. It is not easy and represents a significant challenge in most companies. Some of the keys to effectively managing brands include:

Consistency, consistency, consistency-- In any discussion of effective brand management simple consistency must be the absolute priority. Constantly changing brand strategies, fragmented messaging and inconsistent graphic imagery all dilute the brand and what it represents. Change is important and change should happen when market or product situations warrant it. However, every change should be made with caution only when necessary to significantly enhance the brand.

A clear, written brand policy/standards manual supported by a brand architecture-- It is essential that everyone in the organization understand all aspects of the brand strategy, how the brand must be communicated for every situation and a procedure for dealing with exceptions and changes. You cannot expect people to maintain consistency of the brand if they don't know the rules. These rules must be clearly written and cannot be open to interpretation. The standards should include a brand explaining how Master Brands, Sub-Brands, Ingredient Brands, Brand Extensions, etc. fit within the overall branding structure.

Disciplined Enforcement-- Don't let the brand be pulled in different directions within the company if different groups, divisions, subsidiaries, etc. want to use the brand in a different way. And, insure that all communications of the brand stay focused, simple and single minded to achieve maximum impact. Extensions should always be consistent with the brand and should not be executed without thorough market research among customers to make sure the extension fits and enhances rather than detracts from the brand. The essence of maintaining the consistency discussed above is a disciplined approach to brand enforcement. This is not to encourage a heavy handed approach, but with proper training and involvement, most people will understand and support the value of branding consistency.

Management Support at the Most Senior Level-- The brand should be viewed as a valuable, intangible asset. It must be protected, nurtured and encouraged to grow. Achieving the consistency necessary for effectively managing a brand is a very difficult challenge in most companies and a challenge made even more difficult without senior management support. Ideally, that support should come from the Chief Executive Officer or another member of top management who has learned the importance of effectively managing the company's brands and is known as the "brand champion" within the company.

Cross-functional Brand Accountability-- Establish a team comprised of senior managers from different divisions and departments who "interact" with the brand, and who will share responsibility for maintaining use of the brand and branding implementation. This team should feel a special sense of "ownership" and recommend changes in the brand strategy when appropriate.

Brand Tracking-- Measurement and accountability should be an essential element of all brand management programs. Setting up a benchmark and executing periodic studies enables a company to monitor changes in perceptions of the brand versus its competition and insure that the brand stays relevant with its consumers. If significant changes in the marketplace dictate a need for it, a company may adapt or change the brand strategy or messaging strategies.

Brand Protection-- A system should be in place for challenging any infringement on the verbal, visual or product identity of the brand to prevent confusion, erosion of equity or business loss.

Managing a brand is difficult and challenging, but our experience has shown that if you adapt the above guidelines to your company, you stand a better chance of successfully managing your brand over time and building brand equity.

by AB Group

Welcome to ZowIT blog

Welcome to ZowIT blog

Welcome to ZowIT blog

Welcome to ZowIT blog

Welcome to ZowIT blog

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Web Design tutorial part 1

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Creating a MySQL Database with Site5

Creating A Database using Hostmonster

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Web-hosted Databases with MySQL

Databases, Tables, Fields, Rows and Columns

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Referential Integrity

Monday, March 28, 2011

Accessing MySQL Databases with PHP

Sunday, March 27, 2011

www.oozow.com

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Adobe Illustrator writing tools

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